Sculpture by the Sea Returns to Bondi Beach
Bondi Beach is hosting the 2026 edition of Sculpture by the Sea, a free outdoor show that lines 1.25 miles of coastline with dozens of works. The exhibition runs through November 2 and brings together a wide range of approaches, from abstraction to more recognisable forms.
On the eastern edge of Sydney, Bondi Beach has once again become an open-air exhibition site. Sculpture by the Sea gathers artists from different countries along a coastal path where the works are encountered on foot, with sand, cliffs, and sea constantly in view.
What stands out is how closely the sculptures respond to their setting. Some rely on scale and silhouette, such as Andre Braun’s Surface Breach, in which a giant hand appears to break through the ground; others, like Emma Anna’s DREAM_N, turn an everyday object into something more enigmatic and psychological.
Reading form in the landscape
For artists and anyone interested in painting or drawing, the show is compelling because it shifts attention between close looking and the wider scene. Materials, contours, and shadows are tested against the light and the shoreline, showing how a form holds space, meets the wind, and changes how a place is seen.
Sculpture by the Sea also shows what happens when an exhibition becomes a route rather than a room. At Bondi, viewers move between very different visual languages, from abstract signs to recognisable figures, in a setting where the landscape is part of the work’s meaning as much as its backdrop.
Source : Colossal